On this subject: I read a statistic about a week ago that said 65% of people found new music primarily through the radio. That made me want to paint all my windows black and just hide from society for awhile.

You sure that's not the planar sphere of an ancient lich that's accidentally materialised in the midst of another building? Because I'm very much reminded of that particular side-quest from BGII right now.

I don't mind them if they're quiet, clean, and civilized and we can get a corner to ourselves. That rarely happens. So most of the time I just suck it up until we move to the next spot in the evening. There are a handful of places though that I'll actually refuse to go to and bow out of the night instead, b/c they're just terrible. One of them is this local irish pub that's populated by undergrads... it's crowded, smelly, sticky, and pretty much a den of sin. Never again.

LI: why. WHY. That's what bothers me about some museums: the need to be trendy and modern and ughhh. That's why I'm glad the National Gallery separates the quality stuff from the modern stuff. It's my favorite museum in DC, though sadly it's oldest art pieces are early modern (that is, the historical time period, not the art genre) and I consequently spend the bulk of my time in the 19th century gallery, primarily the French portion (Spanish being too somber, English too staid, and Dutch past its prime).

There are a lot of independent galleries here that I need to actually go to once exams are over. And of course I need to go back to NYC and actually explore the Met -- last time I was there, for the GoT thing, I spent like 5 hrs just on the first floor of the Greco-Roman wing. Granted, that's one of its more involved wings (a lot of audio guide stuff -- briefly went through the ancient near east stuff too, and there was only a small fraction of audio tour stuff there). The audio tours at the Met are better than at other museums; they're not geared towards laypeople, but actually use terms of art.

LI: why. WHY. That's what bothers me about some museums: the need to be trendy and modern and ughhh. That's why I'm glad the National Gallery separates the quality stuff from the modern stuff. It's my favorite museum in DC, though sadly it's oldest art pieces are early modern (that is, the historical time period, not the art genre) and I consequently spend the bulk of my time in the 19th century gallery, primarily the French portion (Spanish being too somber, English too staid, and Dutch past its prime).

Two years back I was in Vienna and we visited the two big museums there: The natural history and the art museum. The art one didn't grasp my attention that much: Thousands and thousands of paintings, most of them portraits, I felt full after the first floor. But the natural history museum was much better. Yes, half of it was rocks and bugs but there were a lot of prehistoric animals and some cool rooms full of stuffed animals. But then we got to the room I had been waiting for the most - the dinosaurs - and there was just a note on the door: "The dinosaur exhibition has been loaned to the Heureka Science Park of Helsinki, Finland for June-July". Why Wary why?

My life is not complete. Then again, I'm not scarred for life either.

At least I got in for free since I was under 19. What, why aren't kids spending time there?

Edit: Had to check why I was allowed in for free (I would have paid the normal price if they had asked)

Last time I went to a bar was with my parents. True story. It was a really nice bar at this posh resort in the North Carolina mountains, the same one that Obama stayed in a few years ago. Huge open area, fireplace, good beer on tap.

In my 20s when I went to bars on a fairly regular basis, they were more like you all described. Some of them were worse, for some reason the beach has more dive-type bars with dirty pool tables and weird men.

Museums: I love the Smithsonian museums in DC; I'd take a week-long DC vacation just to visit those. I don't know enough about New York or Boston's museums other than the fact that Boston's children's museum is apparently pretty sweet; my kids have been with their grandparents.

I loved the museums in London, especially the British Museum and the Imperial War Museum.

The British Museum has one of the most gorgeous facades of any museum, ever.

@Lugija -- the funny thing is, I used to be so into dinosaurs as a kid. I've have killed to have been in close proximity to a natural history. Yet after three years here, I've only been to the natural history museum ONCE -- and that was because a friend wanted to see the marine mammals section of it, along with some early man stuff. Guess I just don't find the stuff as compelling as I used to -- but then again, I didn't find the Air & Space Museum nearly as amazing as I found it when I was a kid, either. Since I'm not as into planes and things as I used to be, the most interesting part of the museum to me were the exhibits on what WWI and WWII pilots carried with them on missions -- sort of a window into their lives sort of thing. I guess I'm just a lot more into history these days.

Of course, this might change soon; we have the ENTIRE museum to ourselves for a graduation reception thing... that's going to be so cool.

I still remember one of those old point-and-click games where you have click so many times to have the one dinosaur strip the flesh of the other's corpse and expose the bloodstained skeleton underneath.

To actually give you an answer, LI, it was a combination of the Jurassic Park books/movies, Zoobooks, and the Dinotopia novels. Plus god knows how many dinosaur-related books, playground antics, toys, kids documentaries.... actually, hell, the biggest factor was probably the old 3D Adventures games....

edit: and Dinopark Tycoon! That was our favorite computer lab game in grade school, but we were only allowed to play it if we finished our other lessons first.

I actually tend to like small museums. A friend of mine's girlfriend years ago bemoaned being an art major and that there was nothing around in the Orlando area - I rattled off the names of about six different museums and she wasn't aware of a single one. (One of my favorites when I was kid - and just down the road from where I am now - is an art museum where a miniature Aztec ruin was constructed).
Also, my early childhood memories essentially revolve around the local Science Museum, where you could sit in an actual Gemini capsule.

If you grew up in the 80s and didn't enjoy "Oregon Trail", you were dead inside.

My friends in 1st grade liked naming every single passenger in the wagon after me and then fording every river in sight and traveling at as grueling a pace as possible with no rations or clothes in order to repeatedly kill me the quickest.